February 28, 2006 -USA has traditionally been the leader when new high-tech
products and services are introduced. The table below shows the per capita
usage trends from 1990 with projections for 2010 for three technologies:
cell phone usage, Internet users and PCs in-use. The table shows that the
USA was initially the leader in all three technologies, but was surpassed
by W. Europe in cellular subscribers per capita by 2000.

Many W. European countries currently have more cellular
subscribers than people and the whole region will reach this threshold by
2009. Several Asian countries also have more cellular subscribers than
people. However, it is important to realize that many countries that use
the GSM technology have an inflated subscriber number per capita. This is
due to the use of multiple SIM cards by many GSM subscribers. Multiple SIM
cards are used to lower the usage costs. By switching between SIM cards,
the cell phone user can lower roaming costs when traveling in foreign
country. SIM cards are also used to switch between carriers to take
advantage of rate changes by day of the week or hours. Even with multi SIM
card usage, W. Europe is clearly the leader in cellular subscribers per
capita.

Information Technology Usage Trends

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

Cellular Subscribers Per 1,000 People:

USA (#)

21.2

127

388

683

946

W. Europe (#)

9.1

60

634

930

1,008

Asia-Pacific (#)

0.4

7.1

71

230

379

Worldwide (#)

2.1

15.6

123

319

478

Internet Users Per 1,000 People:

USA (#)

7.2

105

477

668

839

W. Europe (#)

0.5

22

244

535

788

Asia-Pacific (#)

0.03

1.2

34

116

193

Worldwide (#)

0.4

7.9

69

167

262

PCs In-Use Per 1,000 People:

USA (#)

192

321

628

778

932

W. Europe (#)

69

158

330

543

755

Asia-Pacific (#)

4.8

14.6

39

75

118

Worldwide (#)

18.6

40

87

140

201

The
table shows that the PC was the first high-volume information technology
device. But due to high price of PCs, the mass usage primarily took place
in the industrialized countries of the world. Internet usage was at first
primarily based on PC availability, but multiple users per PC became
common—especially in the developing countries. PC-based Internet usage
will remain important in the future, but Internet access via cell phones
and Smartphones will become increasingly important. Cellular Internet
usage will be particularly important in developing countries where the
price of PCs is too high for most households.

These are some of the results from three new market
research reports by eTForecasts. One report has PCs and mobile PCs-in-use
estimates for 57 countries and six regions of the world from 1990 to 2005
and projection for 2006-2010. A second report has Internet user and
broadband subscriber estimates and forecasts for the same countries and
regions. The third report estimates cellular subscribers and phone lines
in use for the same countries and regions.2010.